Pep Talk For Shri Shri Ravi Shankar

You are the only one who has said out loud “Homosexuality is not a crime”. But I’m wondering why you said what you said in this particular instance!

Dear Gurudev,

Firstly, a big thanks for stepping up and offering your support. Of all the new age gurus and spiritual mentors – You are the only one who has said out loud “Homosexuality is not a crime”.

But I’m wondering why you said what you said in this talk!

Why bother with a “why” in the first place? Why blame the masculine and feminine essence of our very existence for such “tendencies”? And even if I were to give it another deep thought – Would it not be more of a gender identity confusion if women were to exclusively use their Masculine energy and men were comfortable using their Feminine energy?

The arrogant part of me wished you would have just made sex and sexuality transient. Nothing but a a minuscule expression in the larger scheme of lives – and hence not worthy of so much debate and fight.

But the hopeful believer in me wishes you’d say “It is so because it is so”. A homosexual is a homosexual because he is so. Because quite honestly Guruji, from where I am standing – I see this realisation at the end of all questioning.

I don’t think one is to understand Shri Shri Ravishankar’s points with reference to our modern/scientific notions of sexual orientation as distinct from gender identity. Traditionally attraction to members of the same sex is viewed as heterotypical behaviour i.e. as behaviour that is typical of members of the other sex (typical does not mean exclusive to). With this in mind, one can interpret the guru’s statement as saying everyone has the potential to be attracted to the other sex or the same sex, and the degree of attraction may also vary over time. I feel that he thus has a more nuanced understanding of the potential for same-sex attraction that all/many have. Sure, this may mess up the “born this way, always been gay, will continue to be gay” argument, but reality is actually more complicated for some people, and I feel the guru acknowledges this.

Traditional views are many but obsolete in today’s times. How do you expect the old templates to fit/contain or even remotely explain the new things we are observing around us?

Perhaps, you are right when you say that the distinction between sexuality and gender is too narrow and excludes many nuances of complex social organisms. But help me understand how can we even approach sexuality or gender without the cultural and social context, which in our case is constantly evolving.

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